Dusting of snow, or just cold and wet?

Saturday

Feb 26, 2011 at 12:01 AM

STOCKTON - Gerald Ford was president the last time an accumulation of snow was officially recorded in Stockton. If you're not a presidential historian, that means we're going back 35 years, to Feb. 5, 1976, when three-tenths of an inch of snow was recorded at Stockton Metropolitan Airport.

Roger Phillips and Alex Breitler

STOCKTON - Gerald Ford was president the last time an accumulation of snow was officially recorded in Stockton. If you're not a presidential historian, that means we're going back 35 years, to Feb. 5, 1976, when three-tenths of an inch of snow was recorded at Stockton Metropolitan Airport.

But the 35-year streak of snow-free living, with an asterisk attached, may be over by the time you read this. It's not as if you'll need to dig the toboggan out of the garage, but as you slept, it just might be that some snow stuck to the ground at the airport for the first time since the year the United States celebrated its bicentennial.

The National Weather Service was forecasting a likelihood of snow in Stockton between 10 p.m. Friday and 4 a.m. today. An accumulation of less than one-half-inch was possible. Rain and snow were predicted to continue until 10 a.m., with a chance of rain for the rest of the day.

"There's a band of light snow in the northern Sacramento Valley pushing southward," meteorologist Eric Kurth of the National Weather Service said at 8 p.m. Friday. "It's probably going to be spreading further south shortly."

At about 8:15 p.m. Friday, there were some anecdotal reports of flurries in Valley Springs, which is 30 miles northeast of Stockton less than 800 feet above sea level, and rarely gets snow.

"Earlier, my mom said there were a couple of snowflakes out there, but right now I don't see any," said Kourtnee Kaauwai, an employee at the Pizza Factory in Valley Springs. "There have been a few snowflakes falling, but they haven't really stuck."

Earlier Friday, a tornado in Rancho Cordova damaged cars and uprooted trees with winds topping out at 85 mph. "We could see the funnel at the top," said Kurth, who watched from the window of his office.

As for the Stockton area, regardless of whether there is snow, it will be cold, with a low of about 33 degrees predicted and a hard freeze warning issued.

There actually has been snow in Stockton since 1976, in December 2009. But it is not listed in the official records, because there was no accumulation that day at the National Weather Service station at the airport. The 1976 accumulation will remain on the books as Stockton's last official snowfall through this storm, too, if there is no measurable snow at the airport.

Today, nearby areas as low as 100 feet above sea level face the possibility of additional snow, according to the National Weather Service. California Highway Patrol spokesman Angel Arceo said his agency was getting ready for the worst.

Inclement weather caused power outages Friday afternoon for 3,000 customers in Amador and Calaveras counties, mainly due to a mix of high winds and low snow, Pacific Gas and Electric Co. spokeswoman Nicole Liebelt said.

"It's been two weeks of stormy weather, so the ground is saturated, the winds are strong, and we've got frigid temperatures. All of those things combined have created quite a challenging situation," she said.

The 3,000 customers had their power restored by early evening, according to PG&E spokeswoman Jana Morris. As of about 8 p.m., Morris said, there were four single-customer outages in the Stockton area - in Acampo, Manteca, Pioneer and Valley Springs.